The 2014 Magnolia Chapel Lily Mist

On April 18th, 2014, inside Magnolia Chapel in Mobile, Alabama, the overwhelming scent of lilies barely hid a thick sourness underneath. Row after row of tightly arranged white flowers lined the hall, their petals too pristine, as if hiding bruises. I followed the smell to a wooden door marked 'Staff Only,' where cold air seeped out, heavy and wrong. Inside, instead of caskets, stacked beneath a tarp, were dozens of sealed boxes. Each bore my surname, handwritten in marker, and one had a slip of paper inside-my birth certificate, today’s date circled in red ink.